WACO—Baylor University has begun the public input portion of its strategic planning process by inviting faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of Baylor to help shape the direction of the university’s next 10-year plan.
To guide the process, the university has launched a strategic planning website at http://www.baylor.edu/strategicplan. The website includes a timeline of the planning process and links to resources such as the university’s mission statement, foundational assumptions, core convictions and unifying academic themes, as well as forms for groups and individuals to provide input as the process moves forward.
Baylor President Ken Starr has appointed Elizabeth Davis, executive vice president and provost, to lead the universitywide strategic planning process.
“Dr. Davis has embraced this responsibility with great enthusiasm,” Starr said. “Working with her colleagues, she has already established a multifaceted visioning exercise that will, during the next year, inform the development of the plan that will guide and inspire our progress during the coming decade.”
Davis has provided a document titled “Envisioning Our Future” designed to generate dialogue and engage Baylor’s constituents. It can be downloaded here.
“In designing our strategic planning process, every effort has been made to ensure that all voices can be heard,” Davis said. “We are asking that faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends take considerable time to reflect on Baylor’s character and purpose, on the progress that we have made in our storied 165-year history, and then to be creative in charting the many ways Baylor University can, and should, in the future, serve Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana—the church and the world.”
In addition to the information provided on the strategic planning website, Davis is initiating meetings with on-campus groups to explain the process and encourage participation. In early 2011, Davis said, the university will seek additional input through a series of town hall meetings, similar to those held for the presidential search process.
Davis has encouraged faculty, staff, students and alumni to consider the questions in the “Envisioning the Future” document, and think about what Baylor might be 10 or 15 years from now.
“How should our influence be felt in the graduates we produce, in the scholarship we create, and in the communities in which we live and serve?” she said. “Ahead of us lies the opportunity to do many things, but we must consider the best path for Baylor to take as a national research university that resolutely embraces its Christian identity. We occupy a distinctive place in higher education. All of us need to participate in determining how we can best act in this privileged position.”
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The process will result in the presentation of a draft plan for consideration by Baylor’s board of regents at the 2011 homecoming meeting.
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